Severe Weather

Woman dies after being swept away on N.H. river

A Massachusetts woman died and another was rescued while clinging to a rock amid rapids after the two had been swept over the Lower Falls of the Swift River in the White Mountain National Forest.

Siphal Hak, 56, of Lowell, Mass., was found dead 2 miles down the river Monday, New Hampshire Fish and Game officials said. Sanamaran Keo, 60, of Dracut, Mass., was rescued by the Conway Fire Department 1,000 feet below the falls, holding onto a boulder in the middle of the river.

The two women had been wading in water at the popular picnic and swimming area about 200 feet above the falls when they slipped and the force of the water carried them down the river. They were trying to help each other from going over the falls, but they were carried over together, officials said.

The Conway Fire Department’s Swift Water/Flood Rescue team deployed swimmers who swam across the rapids in the 58-degree water, reached Keo and put her in a life jacket and helmet. Keo was pulled back to shore by a rope.

“The river is at an unusually high level at this time of year, due to all the rain,” said Sgt. Brian Abrams of the New Hampshire Fish and Game. “They were just overtaken by the power of the river.”

This was the third swift water rescue conducted by Conway’s team this season, Fire Chief Stephen Solomon said.

“With the busy holiday weekend approaching, we are asking people to be extra careful around the water,” Abrams said. “With all this rain, it has made rivers extremely high and powerful. We want people to be as safe as they can.”

A call for assistance came in at 3:15 p.m. Hak’s body was located at 4:35 p.m.

Fire and rescue personnel from North Conway, Conway, the U.S. Forest Service, Fish and Game, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the state police responded.

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